AES Student Blog

July 2012

Student delegate assembly wants to thank once again to our sponsors who helped us run Student Recording Competition on 132 Convention in Budapest and who kindly gave away great prizes to the competition winners.

This time we would like to thank SCHOEPS who generously donated Schoeps MK22 CMC6, making it a prize for Teresa Kunz from Universität der Künste Berlin, the winner of gold prize in Category 1.

SCHOEPS MK22 CMC6 comes from an open cardioid condenser capsule MK22 and preamplifier CMC6 in one microphone. The CMC6 amplifier forms the body of the microphone while the capsule screws on to the top.

SCHOEPS is leading microphone manufacturer from Germany, well known and respected worldwide, always associated with products of excellent quality and practicality. SCHOEPS stands for one of the most innovative and original of microphone manufacturers.

The SDA would like to once again thank our awesome sponsors who helped us run Student Recording Competition at the 132nd AES Convention in Budapest, and who kindly gave away cool prizes to the competition winners.
This time around we would like to thank GOBBLER who generously donated eight user accounts of unlimited server space of lossless-compressed DAW-integrated cloud storage. Accounts went to every Bronze and Silver award winners (check out full list of all winners here).Gobbler is an indispensable service for backing up, sending, and organizing digital media files. Gobbler puts the power of the cloud in the hands of digital media creators, providing secure, on-demand storage and processing throughout the creative process. Gobbler’s transfer technology is one of the fastest and most reliable available on the market today. Every aspect of Gobbler is designed to provide solutions and tools to enable intelligent storage, collaboration, and project organization for digital media creators. By combining these tools into one comprehensive service, Gobbler solves many of the most frustrating challenges and pitfalls of the digital creation workflow.

The first version of Gobbler is built for digital audio creators and seamlessly integrates into their unique work-flow. Gobbler supports all major digital audio workstations (DAWs), enabling any media creator who works with audio to effortlessly manage their digital assets, regardless of format or location.

As usual, check out more pictures from the SRC in Budapest on our facebook account and don't forget follow us on twitter.

The Student Delegate Assembly wants to once again thank our sponsors who helped us run Student Recording Competition of the 132 AES Convention in Budapest, and who kindly gave away great prizes to the competition winners.

This time we would like to thank Looptrotter, who generously donated a Saturate-2 audio processor, which was presented to György Barocsai of University of Lulea-Pitea, Gold medalist of Category 2 at the 132 Student Recording Competition in Budapest.

The Student Delegate Assembly wants to once again thank our sponsors who helped us run Student Recording Competition of the 132 AES Convention in Budapest, and who kindly gave away great prizes to the competition winners.

This time we would like to thank Sonic Studio, who generously donated nine Amarra players. The Amarra player licences were presented to winners of Silver and Bronze prizes in all four categories at the 132 Student Recording Competition in Budapest.

Since the early 1980s, Sonic Studio workstations have been adopted worldwide by motion picture and recording studios, major record labels and high end mastering facilities. On award–winning motion picture soundtracks and more than half of all commercially released CD, Sonic Studio’s customers consistently win Grammy®, Emmy® and Oscar® awards for their exceptional audio work. Sonic Studio continues to lead the way to the ultrafidelity computer based audio of with the Amarra computer music player.

The Student Delegate Assembly wants to once again thank our sponsors who helped us run Student Recording Competition of the 132 AES Convention in Budapest, and who kindly gave away great prizes to the competition winners.

This time we would like to thank Cengage Learning, who generously donated eleven books. The audio publications were presented to winners of Silver and Bronze prizes in all four categories at the 132 Student Recording Competition in Budapest.

Cengage is an international publisher, providing academic and professional works to scholars around the world via print and online markets. Cengage is committed to advancing the audio industry by spreading technical knowledge and artistic insight to novice and experienced readers alike.

The Student Delegate Assembly wants to once again thank our sponsors who helped us run Student Recording Competition of the 132 AES Convention in Budapest, and who kindly gave away great prizes to the competition winners.

This time we would like to thank SoundChannel, who generously donated SoundChannel subscriptions, making it prizes for nine students, winners of Silver and Bronze prizes in all four categories at the 132 Student Recording Competition in Budapest.

The Student Delegate Assembly wants to once again thank our sponsors who helped us run Student Recording Competition of the 132 AES Convention in Budapest, and who kindly gave away great prizes to the competition winners.

This time we would like to thank TELEFUNKEN Elektroakustik, who generously donated an M80 Microphone and an M81 Microphone, making them prizes for Simon Lindskog from University of Lulea-Pitea, winner of the Silver prize in Category 1, and Daniel Meyer from Berlin Student Section, winner of the Silver prize in Category 3.

M80 and M81 are two models of TELEFUNKEN Elektroakustic's outstanding line of dynamic microphones. These provide "condenser-like performance" in a rugged, roadworthy package with a reduced proximity effect and carefully tailored midrange, resutling in the perfect blend of body, claridy, and reliability.

SDA: How long did you work on your competition entry? Was this your first entry?

DM: With Malleus, who performed “Water Bearer” for Category 3, we recorded three songs within three days. It took me about 20 hours to mix “Water Bearer”; in the end, I worked hard on small details. On my film entry, “Paranormal”, I was pretty fast with a first version – it took me maybe 15 hours to write and produce the music. Later, I reworked some stuff, which took some time.

SDA: Tell us about the production of your entry. Stories? Inspirations?

DM: Shawn Everett had a big influence on the mixing of my entries. He is a Los Angeles-based engineer who I met at the Banff Centre, and he always has crazy, unconventional ideas and is lightning fast with Pro Tools. Also thanks to the Banff Centre, I learned a lot about music for film from Mark Willsher.

SDA: What initiated your passion for audio? When did it start?

DM: As a child, I loved my cassettes so much that I took them with me in my bed when I went to sleep. Apart from songs on the radio, the first thing I recorded with a cassette recorder was me and a couple of friends banging wooden spoons on cooking pots and switching on and off alarm clocks while I was shouting a poem that I wrote to annoy my older sister.

SDA: Funniest experience as an engineer so far?

DM: Once, I and a fellow student recorded a singer who was always dancing while he was singing. His dancing was so funny that me and my fellow student had to hide under the mixing desk because we were laughing so hard. We just could not stop.

SDA: Biggest mistake you made during a production?

DM: No mistakes so far ;-) (LIE)

SDA: Favorite frequency?

DM: 1/28800 Hz – it’s the frequency of my meals.

SDA: Favorite mic, outboard box, and plugin?

DM: KM140, 1176, iZotope Ozone (EQ and Exciter are great).

SDA: Best recording of all time?

DM: I really like the album California by Mr Bungle – it’s packed with strange sounds. But there are too many great recordings...

SDA: Do you play any instruments?

DM: Electric guitar (mostly rock), piano (mostly classical)

SDA: Any other hobbies?

DM: Repairing my bicycle. (It’s from ALDI, a cheap German discounter, and it breaks every month. Don’t buy your bike at ALDI.)

SDA: The best part of the 132nd AES Convention?

DM: Meeting people from Banff again.

SDA: The best thing about the AES organization?

DM: So many great members.

SDA: Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

DM: Hopefully I will be engineering and producing interesting bands, and writing music for films or video games.

SDA: How long did you work on your competition entry? Was this your first entry?

NJ: I worked for about a week on it. Two days for recording, two for editing, and three for mixing. Yes, it was my first entry.

SDA: Tell us about the production of your entry. Stories? Inspirations?

NJ: Two of the most interesting things that I ever did were on this recording: I made a spaceship cabin atmosphere by placing a mic inside a blender and running the blender on different speeds to capture a variety of sounds. Then, I used Nuendo to do a lot of pitch bending and shifting to get the sound I wanted. I also recorded animals at Belgrade Zoo for aliens that are featured in the video. The monkeys were difficult to record because they were throwing feces at me!

I get a lot of inspiration from movies, video games, and books. I am a big fan of all of the projects that have come out of Skywalker Sound.

SDA: What initiated your passion for audio? When did it start?

NJ: My passion for audio was initiated quite accidentaly. I wasn't a very good student in highschool, and eventualy I had to find an occupation for myself, so I started playing guitar. I had a couple of bands, but they didn't last for long. I started working on my own and got interested in film and game soundtracks. I took that path and never looked back. I learned most things by myself; I am a self-educated musician and composer. After some time, I decided to bring my creativity to a higher level and applied for Advanced School Of Electrical Engineering in Belgrade to start learning the technical side of sound.

SDA: Funniest experience as an engineer so far?

NJ: Hmmm... Definitely the monkeys and the flying feces while I was recording sounds for this competition entry!

SDA: Biggest mistake you made during a production?

NJ: Recording the monkeys. Also: forgetting to shut down the “destructive recording“ in Pro Tools. That's a bad thing to do.